1,000 children across the State are estimated to be engaged in or at risk of engagement with a criminal network, according to new research.
Justice Minister, Helen McEntee today launched research which looks to offer hope to children caught up in crime networks.
It was published by the University of Limerick and is followed by a newly designed community intervention programme based on the research.
For the last five years, the Greentown project has lifted the lid on a hidden crime problem in Ireland, uncovering significant evidence of children’s engagement in crime networks.
The project is a joint partnership between the School of Law at University of Limerick, the Department of Justice and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY).
The project helps to provide new insights into how criminal networks attract and confine children, encouraging and coercing them to be involved in serious crime and limiting their opportunities to escape their influence.
🔴 LIVE: Virtual Event with Minister @HMcEntee launching Greentown Research https://t.co/dhgoIfPJQ7
— Department of Justice 🇮🇪 (@DeptJusticeIRL) January 27, 2021
Launching the reports today, Minister McEntee said: “I would like to thank Dr Sean Redmond and his colleagues for authoring these reports. It is vital that we break the link between criminal gangs and the young people they try to recruit into a life of crime.
We must break the cycle of criminality as early as possible and the Greentown project gives us the tools we need to stop criminal gangs persuading young people to join their networks.
“The research and evidence demonstrates that this is a serious issue and one which demands a serious and rapid criminal justice response.
Greentown project
She said the fact that an estimated 1,000 children across the State are engaged with criminal networks illustrates the work that needs to be done.
She added “Our plans to outlaw the grooming of children into crime is a clear signal that we are serious about stopping the gangs from leading our young into a life of crime.”
The Greentown Project is publishing four reports along with the new intervention programme, which is being implemented on a pilot basis in two locations.
The pilots will get underway shortly and the lessons learned from the pilots will have a key influence on the development of the Department’s policies and interventions in the youth justice area
Three of the reports are locally based case studies. Greentown and Redtown focus on network activity in two provincial towns and Bluetown is an examination of criminal networks in one Dublin location.
The fourth report is a national survey which assessed the prevalence of problems identified in the Greentown study across Ireland.
They said taken together, the reports provide detailed examinations of the features of criminal networks that operate in locations where children were detected for involvement in high levels of burglary and drugs for sale and supply.
